Attacking Stamford set tone from the start

Stamford secured a second win in eight days with a blistering first 25 minute period of attack which blew away Melton Mowbray, winning 22-15.

Having previously put together a promising 80 minute performance against Bakewell Mannerians, winning 22-19 at home, the purple, black and whites travelled to bottom of the league Melton with optimism.

Stamford started at break-neck speed, keeping the ball out of contact and playing with a tempo and width which left Melton unable to realign in defence and afforded Stamford the space required to play their wide, expansive, brand of rugby.

Although Melton took the lead with a penalty in front of the posts, Stamford came straight back and scored three quick tries in succession.

The first two tries came through moving the ball to the left wing straight from the restarts.

Good quality handling from backs and forwards alike left Daniel Thompson with two clear opportunities to use his upper body strength to brush off his opposite man and scorch in for two almost carbon copy tries.

Will Mardling obliged with one conversion to take the score to 12 - 3.

Only five minutes later Stamford went through several phases, opened up the short side and tight head Mark Erven popped up to receive the ball directly from Robbie Smith, before rounding Melton’s left wing to dot the ball down. Mardling added the extras.

The opening was a stark contrast to the 5-6 home loss to Melton earlier in the season.

The following 55 minutes were not particularly worth commenting on from a Stamford perspective.

Melton worked tirelessly, and by moving the ball one out from the breakdown and taking every opportunity to use their driving lineout, managed to bring themselves back into the game at 19 - 10 at half time.

The second half saw Stamford lose their way, committing unnecessary penalty offences at the breakdown and sacrificing field position as a result on all too many occasions.

Melton went on to score a well worked try in the corner which was unconverted to bring the scores to 22 - 15, as it stayed until the final whistle.

Captain Matt Albinson said: “The victory clearly demonstrates what this side is capable of and if they continue to replicate such performance and keep 15 players on the park for the full 80 minutes, you can be sure that performances will improve further and that Midlands 2 status will be secured with room to spare.”